Curious Things
by roberre
Summary: A collection of 100 word drabbles. A range of characters, tones, and ideas. A bit Rumplestiltskin heavy, but not exclusive to him. (Chapter Seven: In Which Rumplestiltskin Tries to Move On.)
1. Chapter 1

**In Which Belle Cooks Spaghetti**

The food called 'spaghetti' is a curious thing. It begins life as a bundle of twigs – straight and golden and brittle as dried straw. Set it to a boil—and by the time it's done, it's transformed into… jellied rope. It sticks together and breaks apart and takes a good five minutes of rinsing before it separates.

Preparing spaghetti was supposed to be 'simple', but Belle realizes quickly that cooking—like magic—is unpredictable in this world.

She _has_ mastered the use of telephones, however, and Rumplestiltskin arrives an hour later with a bag of takeaway and an infuriatingly smug smile.

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**A/N: ** Thanks for reading!

This story will be all my OUaT 100 word drabbles. They won't be consistent in terms of pairings, timeline, or situations, and I accept suggestions if anyone has an idea they REALLY want to see condensed into 100 words. xD I have seven of these little guys currently written at the moment, but I'm always adding more. Hope you enjoyed it. :)


	2. Chapter 2

In Which Belle is Afraid

The horrifying possibility nearly paralyzes her as the cart begins to roll: cross the line, and she will possess only _Belle French_ in her head.

The Belle who knows nothing but the cell (cold concrete blocks and impersonal shapeless clothes and a rag-tag blanket on a rag-tag cot) and the doctors (lab coats and clipboards and drugs that leave her mind blank and her body numb) and the fear (gripping her heart with icy talons, invading her dreams, colouring the corners of her vision with rusty brick-dust orange _terror_).

The Belle who finds it so very difficult to be brave.


	3. Chapter 3

In Which Rumplestiltskin is Ursula

"What—what do you want?"

Rumplestiltskin stared at her with glassy dark eyes, more like a shark's than a man's. "My dear princess, you have much to learn. Not everyone has something I want." He laughed, twittered and bobbled his head. "But everyone has something _they_ want. So that's what I trade."

"That's what you take from them, you mean."

"Call it what you like, dearie. Now, do you want my help… or not?"

She barely took the time to breathe before nodding. "Name your price."

His face split instantly into a sharp-toothed grin, and he leaned closer.

"Your voice."


	4. Chapter 4

In which Rumplestiltskin is brave enough to ask his wife a question… 

"Do you really wish I'd died… in the ogre wars?"

_Please say no_, I pray with a look, as I ladle tea into the little clay cup. _Because at least that will make one of us._

I know she's ashamed. I know she wanted more than a life with a spinner in a hovel with a son (_"lashed to the village coward"_). I know she dreams of adventure and glory and freedom. But surely she'll take a coward over an empty stomach.

"I wish you'd fought."

I hand her the tea.

It's not a _yes_, but it's not a _no_ either.


	5. Chapter 5

In Which Emma Ponders Motivations

When Emma first sees him smile, he looks like a man hungry for something he cannot have. And she finds this odd, because everything she knows about Mister Gold says he can have anything he wants.

Months later, her answer arrives on the end of a cane, where gold-plated wood meets Moe French's face. The beating redresses more than a repossessed van, more than a robbery and a chipped cup. Beneath his rage, something in Gold's face and voice and words sounds like _pain_.

Everything she knows about Mister Gold says he can have anything he wants—except, apparently, 'Her'.


	6. Chapter 6

In which Milah was in love with Rumple, once. 

We were young. Happy. She was so beautiful. We knew the soldiers would come eventually – and though the thought filled my bones with ice-water and turned my stomach into putty, she kissed my trembling lips and told me it made our moments together all the sweeter. She said I would be her hero. That I would single-handedly win the war.

Well—and forgive me if I smile, but it's so deliciously funny—she was right. I did win the ogre wars. But I'm no hero.

She _said_ she never loved me.

But then why did she cry when I left?


	7. Chapter 7

In which Rumplestiltskin tries to move on. 

She's not coming back.

For the first several months, he has to remind himself daily. She had been with him through the winter and into the summer, though it seemed interminably longer. She had filled the days with light and smiles and suffused his stone castle with a warmth it couldn't have otherwise possessed. And now it was winter again, and the rose had long since dropped its petals and he nailed the curtains shut to keep out the winter storms and he still saw her everywhere he looked. But she isn't coming back.

Perhaps one day he'll stop wishing.

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**A/N: **This will be the end of the weekly updates. I've run out of drabbles. xD So, unless I decide to write a drabble a week just for the sake of updating, I'll probably just post new things as I write them, if I write them. But I have a ton more oneshots on the way, and I'll be continuing 'Lost and Found' for some time yet, AND I have a multi-chap WIP. So keep your eyes open, and thanks so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed/will continue to enjoy my conglomerations of words. xD


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